Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 23:55:13 +0000
From: Paul Francis
Subject: New Submission: 'Andrew's Story'; Chapter 6.
The story which follows is a work of erotic fiction.
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now.
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I will reply as soon as I can.
SIX
It's ten to five on a mild October afternoon as Justin walks along
Richmond Avenue. His visits to Andrew's house are a special time, a
time when they can both be themselves, when they can express the way
they feel about each other without anyone interfering. They've had
sex, of course, because they both wanted to, but he feels sure he'd
love Andrew just as much even if they weren't having sex. He turns
into Birchwood Park. David McIntyre is on his bicycle blocking the
footpath.
"Where have you been till now?" he demands coldly. "We left school at
quarter to four and you're only just coming home."
"It's none of your business!" Justin retorts angrily.
He tries to walk around the bicycle, but David reverses to stop him.
"Well, actually I know where you've been," David continues, in a very
condescending tone. "You've been to that Andrew Prior's house.
Everybody knows you're gay; well, he is too, isn't he? You go there
to do disgusting things with each other!"
Justin is completely speechless. He's kept as far out of David's way
as possible over the last few weeks. How can he know?
"You see, I've been watching you," David tells him, smirking. "I've
seen the way you look at each other! I wonder what will happen when
your parents find out?"
Justin is in near panic and close to tears. Oh, if only Andrew was
here with him!
"Well, we'll soon know!" David concludes, before cycling off down the
road.
Justin walks the remaining few yards back to his house in a total
daze. Everything was going so well, and then that spiteful snob
sticks his nose in. And it is none of his business! He steps inside.
"Justin, is that you?" his mum calls from the kitchen.
"Yes mum!"
"Come here, I want to talk to you!"
He makes his way through. This is trouble, he just knows it.
"Justin, where have you been?" she asks.
"Andrew's house."
"And what's going on with you and Andrew?"
He shrugs.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I've had Mrs. McIntyre round here telling me that everyone at
school knows you're gay, and that Andrew's gay too, and that you go
to his house while his mum's still at work to, well, you know.."
He hasn't prepared for this. Maybe he should have stayed outside for
a bit longer, he thinks to himself, working out what to say. It's too
late for that now though. Of course, he could just deny the whole
thing, tell her David was making it up just to be spiteful, but
that's not going to work. Some people at school do know he's gay;
denying everything is going to get him caught out sooner or later,
and then he won't just be in trouble for having sex with Andrew,
he'll be in even more trouble for telling lies about it. He hates
telling lies anyway, especially to his mum.
"Well, I suppose I am gay. I like other boys," he says quietly.
Strangely, this doesn't seem to come as much of a shock.
"And Andrew?" his mum continues.
"Suppose," he shrugs.
"And what have you been doing?"
He takes a deep breath.
"Messing about, but it's not like you think."
She shakes her head.
"Well, I'm going to have to tell your dad. I don't know what he's
going to say."
Justin makes his way through the lounge room and heads upstairs,
wondering what he's done. He's not just landed himself in a pile of
trouble, he's probably dropped Andrew in it too. He pauses on the
upstairs landing, picks up the phone and dials Andrew's number. When
Andrew answers he recounts the whole story.
"I'm sorry, Andrew, I've got you into trouble, haven't I? But when
mum asked me, I just couldn't lie to her. I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about that, it's cool," Andrew replies, trying to sound
calm while feeling anything but. "It's not your fault; that slimy
creep shouldn't have been spying on us. I'm going to kill him! What
d'you think your dad's going to say?"
"Dunno. He'll probably try to stop us seeing each other. It's not
fair! Everything's been going so well since I met you. I can't
remember ever being as happy as I've been the last few weeks."
"Yeah, well you did the right thing; lying about it wasn't going to
do any good. We'll work something out, I promise."
Andrew puts the phone down, his heart racing, realising that this
could ruin everything. They've been pretty discreet, only a handful
of people really know the score with him and Justin and they're not
talking about it. It's just David McIntyre being spiteful because
Justin doesn't want to be friends with him. His mum's going to find
out; it's bound to come as a shock. Still he can keep Craig and Shane
out of it; nobody knows about them! But what if mum and Justin's
parents say they have to stop seeing each other? He's just promised
Justin that they'll work something out, but how? He's got to fix
David McIntyre too; sure he could beat him to a pulp, but that's
going to get him kicked out of school. How will he and Justin be able
to see each other then?
Over at Birchwood Park, Justin is sitting at his desk trying to get
his homework done. It isn't just difficult; it's impossible, he can't
concentrate at all. His dad will be home soon and then the trouble
will really start. His dad's not going to accept him being gay; he's
quite sure of that. He hears the familiar crunching of gravel on the
driveway and the slam of a car door. His dad's home. Very soon he'll
have to confront him. He hates fighting and confrontation; he feels
his pulse rate start to rise. If only he didn't have to deal with
this! Why couldn't David McIntyre just keep his nose out of other
folk's business?! His dad calls up the stairs.
"Justin! Come down here, we need to talk to you!"
Justin makes his way downstairs. His mum ushers him onto the lounge
room.
"Sit down," his dad says quietly pointing at the armchair opposite
where he's sitting.
Justin complies, his heart beating faster with every passing second.
"So what's this you mum's being telling me," his dad asks, "about you
and Andrew?"
Justin shrugs.
"Have you two been having sex?" his dad continues.
"Yes," Justin replies quietly, shrugging again.
"Well, he must have corrupted you! That's a real shock; he seemed
like a really nice kid!"
"That's wrong!" Justin snaps angrily. "Nobody corrupted me! I'm gay,
all right?!"
"Well, we didn't bring you up to be gay!" his dad retorts. "In any
case we're putting a stop to this right now. You are not to visit
Andrew's house again and Andrew is not to come here, d'you
understand? Your mum will contact the school tomorrow and ask for you
to be moved to a different tutor group."
Justin sees his whole life flashing in front of him. He's always been
placid, eager to please his mum and dad. He's never answered back.
Never once in his whole life has he stood up for himself. Till now
that is.
"You're not going to separate me and Andrew!" he shouts. "I won't let
you! You talk about not bringing me up to be gay; you've never
brought me up at all, you've left Mum to do everything! I ask you to
come to parents' evenings and stuff at school but you never do. You
could come and watch me when I'm doing gym, but you don't. Andrew
cares more about me than you ever have!!"
Justin jumps out of his chair, runs out of the room, grabs his coat
from the stand in the hallway and heads out through the front door,
slamming it behind him.
Kate and Tony Marshall sit in the lounge room looking at each other,
completely shocked by what's just happened. It's so unlike Justin to
behave like that; he's always been so easy to deal with. Claire
strolls in from the play room where she and Louise have been watching
a video.
"I don't care if Andrew is gay," she comments. "I think he's really
nice. People don't stop being nice just because they're gay. Anyway,
I don't know what you're making so much fuss about. I've known Justin
was gay for ages; I'm surprised you didn't. Anyway, are we having tea
soon, I'm hungry!"
"Yes, love," he mum answers quietly, "it won't be long."
Claire heads upstairs to her bedroom.
"Kate, did you have any idea, you know, about Justin? Tony asks.
"Well, I knew he wasn't into the sort of rough games that most boys
like," she responds, looking uncomfortable. "I did wonder, but he's
so young; I thought he might grow out of it."
"Well that's right! He won't be twelve till next month. I'm only
trying to do what'd best for him, you know, protect him. They
shouldn't be having sex at that age. I guess I went in a bit hard.
Still, don't worry; he'll be back when he's hungry!"
They sit down to tea in the kitchen. Apart from Louise nobody seems
to have much appetite. It seems so strange without Justin there.
Afterwards, Kate and Tony return to the lounge room. Justin's been
gone for forty minutes and there's no sign of him returning.
"Tony, I'm going to call Andrew's mum," Kate says quietly, "she's
very sensible. She'll make sure Andrew tells us if he knows where
Justin is."
Helen Prior is working in the study when the phone rings. She listens
attentively as Kate Marshall tells her the story of the evening's
events.
"Andrew!" she calls down the stairs. "Come here please!"
A moment later, Andrew appears at the study door.
"Andrew, Justin's had an argument with his mum and dad, and now he's
run off. Do you know where he's gone?"
"No, mum."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. If I knew I'd tell you."
"Any idea where he could have gone?"
"Not really. He's got some friends at the gym club, but they all live
quite far away, I think. He might have gone to see one of them, I
really don't know."
"Right. Just wait there young man, I want words with you!"
Andrew feels a twinge of apprehension as his mum returns to complete
the phone call. Being addressed as "young man" spells trouble; it
always does.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Marshall," Helen continues. "Andrew's no idea where
Justin could have gone. I'm really sorry. If we hear anything we'll
call you straight away."
She puts down the receiver.
"Andrew," she says very deliberately, as though cross-examining a
witness, "I want you to tell me about what's been going on between
you and Justin."
Andrew shifts uneasily from one foot to the other, finding it
difficult to look his mum straight in the eye.
"It started after our first gym class. We all had to have a shower.
Justin got, you know, an erection. This stupid fat kid called him a
poof so I told him to leave him alone. Then this kid said something
back to me so I kicked his feet out from under him. All the other
boys were laughing at him. That shut him up! Anyway, that afternoon
or the next day Justin was walking home with me and Ashley. When we
got to the corner I asked him if he wanted to come in for a drink or
something. He said okay. It just happened, I guess. Sorry, mum; I
guess I've known I was gay for months."
"Andrew, what d'you mean `it just happened'? Things don't `just
happen'."
"Well, I mean we both wanted it to happen. I didn't force him or
anything."
"Right, I appreciate that you didn't force him to do anything, but
can you promise me that you didn't get him, you know, doing things?"
Andrew feels his heart rise towards his mouth. This is a tough one!
Of course he got Justin `doing things'! But admitting it would open
up all sorts of questions; he'd better not go there!
"No, mum, it's not like that," he says, trying to sound as convincing
as possible. "I never got him doing anything. Like kissing each
other; I think that was his idea."
"Listen, Andrew. You may as well know. It's always concerned me that
you've had to grow up without a dad to play with you and stuff; I
often wondered how it might affect you. Well, I suppose we know now,
don't we? I do think you're very young to be having sex though.
Andrew, just answer me one more thing. I know you and Justin have got
really close over the last few weeks. It isn't just about sex, is
it?"
Andrew feels a deep sense of relief; he's got through the hard part
even of what he said wasn't wholly true. He knows he's on safe ground
with this one.
"No, of course it isn't! Justin's really special; I've never felt
like that about anybody before. I'd do anything for him. Mum, I'm
really worried; I hope he's all right."
"Yes, son, so am I, but there's nothing much we can do. Okay, off you
go!"
Andrew heads back downstairs, aiming murderous thoughts towards David
McIntyre.
It's quarter to eight when Professor Neil Taylor hears the doorbell
ring. He opens the door to a boy a little smaller than the older of
his two sons, blonder too. The boy seems tired and upset, as though
he might have been crying.
"Yes?" he enquires.
"I'm Justin," the boy says. "I'm one of Ashley's friends. Can I come
in please?"
"Yes, of course. I'll get him for you."
Minutes later Ashley and his dad are sitting together on the sofa as
Justin tells them about everything that's happened.
"Well, Justin," Neil says. "You know we can't keep you here. We'll
have to call your mum and dad and let them know you're safe. They're
probably worried sick about you. Now I suggest that you go upstairs
with Ashley, get yourself cleaned up a bit and go and have a lie
down; you look exhausted. Ashley and I will have a chat to your dad.
No promises, but we'll see what we can do."
Ashley and Justin make their way upstairs. Justin has fallen in love
with this house. It's not quite as big as their house on Birchwood
Park, but it has a wonderful, homely feel to it, like the family that
live there are very happy with their life. After he's washed his
hands and face, Ashley directs him to the guest bedroom.
"Just have a lie down in there. Don't worry, we'll sort it out; make
your dad understand." He grins. "Well, we'll have a bloody good try
anyway!
Kate Marshall is on tenterhooks by the time the telephone rings. She
rushes to answer it but Tony beats her to it.
"Is that Mr. Marshall?" the voice asks. "Neil Taylor here, Ashley's
dad. Justin's at our house; he arrived about fifteen minutes ago. He
was very upset when he arrived. Would you like to come over to
collect him? I think you might need to talk."
Tony Marshall writes down the address and replaces the handset.
"Well, he's safe anyway," he tells Kate. "He's at Ashley's house. I'm
going to go over and collect him."
"Ashley? That's the very clever boy, isn't it?"
"Yeah. His dad's a maths professor or something. I can't say he
sounds like my type; still, he was okay on the phone."
"Tony, love," Kate says anxiously. "Don't go too hard on him."
"Of course. I'm still not happy about him going round with Andrew if
they're going to be, you know.. What do you think?"
"I don't know, love. I just want him back."
Using the sat-nav in the Mercedes Tony reaches the address in barely
five minutes. He looks briefly at the large, late Victorian house,
just the sort of place a maths professor would live in, he thinks to
himself. He walks up the drive trying to imagine what Professor
Taylor will be like. He guesses middle-aged and rather old fashioned.
He rings the doorbell. He's greeted by a man of roughly his own age,
slightly taller than himself, dressed in jeans, moccasins and and
open necked shirt; the only hint of a professorial look coming from
the small spectacles perched on this nose.
"Professor Taylor?" he asks.
The man smiles and extends a hand.
"Call me Neil. Come in."
They shake hands.
"Tony Marshall. Thanks. Nice place you've got here," he comments,
picking up on the same homely feel that Justin noticed. "Where's
Justin?"
"He's upstairs, having a lie down. He was exhausted when he got here.
He'd been walking for over an hour. I don't know how he found us;
he's never been here before. Will you come through to the living room
for a moment? We'd just like a quick chat, or at least Ashley would."
Tony is ushered into the living room. A boy a little taller than
Justin with dirty-blond hair mussed up skater-punk style is sitting
on the sofa. He's dressed in baggy camouflage shorts and a black tee-
shirt. It wasn't how he'd pictured Ashley either. He sits down in one
of the armchairs as Neil takes his place next to his son. He can't
help noticing that the boy has the most piercing blue eyes he's ever
seen.
"Good evening, Mr. Marshall," Ashley begins politely.
"Good evening," Tony responds, wondering where this conversation
might be going.
"Justin told us that you said some things about Andrew, that Andrew
had corrupted him. That's not right; Andrew wouldn't do that. I've
been friends with Andrew since we were five. You don't know somebody
for that long without knowing what they're like. And another way I
know: a few months back Andrew dropped a few hints that he'd like us
to, you know, mess about together. Well, I don't know if Shane and
Richard understood what he was saying, but I did; only I pretended
not to. Well, since then, Andrew and I have been alone together loads
of times, here, at his house, all sorts of places. He's never
mentioned it once. And do you know about the bullying?"
"What bullying?" Tony asks, completely disconcerted by how outspoken
and articulate Ashley is.
"You know that Justin was bullied quite badly when he was at junior
school?" Ashley continues.
Tony' jaw drops.
"No; I don't know anything about it."
"I thought not. It started last year," Ashley informs him, "when they
went swimming from school. Justin had to get changed in front of the
other boys. He got, you know, a hard-on. Some of the other kids
started calling him names, punching him, kicking him, all that sort
of stuff. And the friends he used to go round with didn't want to
hang out with him any more."
"I never knew about any of that," Tony responds, more bemused than
ever. "Why didn't he say something?"
"Too embarrassed to tell you why it was happening, I suppose," Ashley
comments. "Well when he came here, we have to have a shower after our
gym class; everybody does. It happened again. This really horrible
kid called Alan Jenkins called him a poof. Andrew told him to shut
up. Anyway there was a fight and Andrew put this Jenkins kid on the
floor. I'm not quite sure of the details because I'm not in their gym
class; Richard told me about it. The next day I was coming out of
school with Andrew and Justin. Jenkins was waiting by the gate. He'd
got his older brother and two of his brother's mates with him. Andrew
left us in the middle of the playground and went and faced right up
to them. Fortunately, Andrew's cousin who's a year older than Jenkins
brother saw what was going on and put a stop to it. But if he hadn't
been there Andrew would have got his head kicked in. So after that
nobody even says anything to Justin now about being gay or anything.
But maybe you'd rather Andrew hadn't stood up for him; just looked
the other way and pretended it wasn't happening?"
"No of course not!" Tony protests.
"Justin is gay, you know, Mr Marshall. You're not going to change
him." Ashley continues, driving the point home.
"How can you be so sure; he's only eleven," Tony counters.
"Well, I'm the same age, a few months younger actually, and I know
I'm not," Ashley responds confidently. "It's just how he is."
"Mrs. McIntyre told my wife that everybody at school knows Justin's
gay!"
"That's bullshit!" Ashley responds. "The only people that know are
the boys in his tutor group and probably not all of them, and I guess
some of the other boys he's in class with. But after the Jenkins
incident nobody even mentions it. Anyway, Justin's cool."
"But Andrew and Justin shouldn't be having sex at their age!" Tony
comes back; he's a top-class salesman and not used to being out-
argued like this. "I mean, you're not having sex, are you?"
"No, but it's their lives. They're not hurting anyone else; they
aren't hurting each other either as far as I can see." Ashley pauses.
"And one more thing; Justin told us about you never going to anything
he does. Oh, he didn't make a big deal about it; he just told us one
day when we were walking home from school. Well my dad comes to
everything I do, don't you dad?" he says, looking up and smiling at
Neil. "He's busy as well, but it shows he's interested. I'd hate it
if he didn't."
Tony sits in his chair feeling totally defeated, those intense blue
eyes penetrating right into his soul. He's suddenly aware of how
close Neil and Ashley are sitting, how comfortable they seem with
each other. He and Justin have never been like that.
"I've made a real mess of this, haven't I?" he says at last.
"No," Justin responds. "You've been working very hard, doing the best
you can for your family, all the stuff dads are supposed to do. You
just never realised how much Justin needed you to be there for him."
"I suppose he's told you he hates me," Tony says sounding completely
dejected.
"No! He doesn't hate you!" Ashley says reassuringly. "He really
respects you for everything you've achieved and how hard you work. He
just said it was like you didn't really know each other."
There's another long pause.
Well, I suppose I'd better try to put that right, hadn't I?" Tony
says quietly. "I never expected to have my life picked apart by an
eleven year old, but there are times when you hear the truth about
yourself and you just have to hold your hands up. There's been stuff
going on with my family that I knew nothing about and there's nobody
to blame but me. Just one thing though, Ashley: you've been Andrew's
best friend for a long time, right?"
"Yes."
"Then Justin comes along. Don't you feel jealous at all?"
"No way!" Ashley responds, almost laughing. "Andrew's just as much a
friend now as he's ever been! I was really happy for him when he
found Justin; he needed a friend like that; somebody who's really
special to him. I knew that wasn't going to be me. I'm not talking
about sex; Andrew really cares about Justin, he'd do anything for
him. You don't have to ask; you can just tell."
"Thanks Ashley," he says quietly. "I'd like to see him now; I think
we've a lot to talk about."
"I'll show you up," Neil says, getting to his feet.
He shows Tony into the guest room and closes the door. As he goes
back downstairs he hears Tony say "Justin! I'm so sorry!" then the
sound of tears, a man's and a boy's.
It's fifteen minutes later when Tony and Justin appear together in
the Taylors' living room, Tony's arm around his son's shoulder.
"It's cool," Justin says quietly. "Dad and I have sorted it out.
We're okay with each other now, aren't we dad? Thanks for all your
help; thanks Ash! Mr Taylor, we want to go over to Andrew's house.
Dad wants to apologise for what he said. Can we ring him from here,
make sure he hasn't gone to bed?"
"Yeah, no problem!" Neil tells them, directing them to the phone in
his study. Ashley keys in the number.
"Andrew! It's Justin!" he says excitedly. "I'm at Ashley's house.
Everything's going to be okay! Dad's here; we had a long talk and
he's okay with it, really! Look Andrew, we want to come over to see
you. Dad wants to apologise for what he said."
"Yeah, that's cool, I guess," Andrew responds, completely taken aback
by this new turn of events.
"Andrew, it's Ashley!" the blond skater-punk announces, taking the
phone from Justin. "Don't do anything to David McIntyre, right? You
mustn't get in trouble. I'll sort him out; trust me!"
"Ashley!" Neil says reprovingly. "I don't want you getting in trouble
either!"
"No problem, dad, I won't!" Ashley replies, grinning mischievously.
"David McIntyre's a prick! He ought to have his balls cut off, but he
probably hasn't got any! Anyway, I've got to do something or Andrew
will kill him!"
Helen Prior opens the door to greet Justin and Tony Marshall.
"I hope you don't mind us coming round at this time," Tony says
quietly.
"No, it's no problem. Andrew doesn't go to bed till half past nine."
They walk thro to the living room. Andrew gets out of his chair to
meet them.
"Andrew, I just want to say sorry for what I said; I was out of
order. Well your friend Ashley just put me right on a few things. I
hope you'll accept my apology. And you're welcome to visit our house
any time."
Andrew takes Tony's extended hand.
"Thanks."
"I don't think they've been little angels, either of them," Helen
comments.
"Maybe not," Tony responds, "But if it wasn't for Andrew, Justin
would be getting bullied at this school like he was at junior school.
What he did took a lot of guts; I have to respect that. Since Justin
ran off this evening, his mum's been telling me how happy he's been
over the last few weeks and how hard he's been working and all that.
I should have known all along of course, but that's water under the
bridge. Anyway, it all makes sense now. These two boys are very
special to each other. I won't pretend I understand it, but I'm not
going to interfere." He nods towards Helen. "But it's up to you; what
do you think?"
"Well, I have my concerns, the same as you do, but I know they've
become really important to each other. If you're happy with them
being together, so am I. Andrew's pretty sensible most of the time."
"That's it then," Tony concludes. "The only thing I'd say, boys, is
`be careful'."
"We will, won't we Justin?" Andrew says quietly.
"And one more thing," Tony says. "Ashley is a real good friend, to
both of you. He's a remarkable young man."
"Yeah, Ashley's great!" Andrew replies, smiling broadly. "I never met
anyone like him."
Tony and Justin say their goodbyes and head for home.